NUSA DUA, Indonesia, July 9 (Reuters) – U.S. Secretary of State Anthony Blinken and Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi met on Saturday for their first face-to-face talks since October after attending the G20 summit where the top U.S. diplomat leads efforts to pressure Russia over its war in Ukraine.
U.S. officials say Blinken’s meeting with Wang in Bali, Indonesia, including a morning session of talks and a working lunch, is aimed at keeping the difficult U.S. relationship with China stable and preventing it from inadvertently slipping into conflict. Read more
“There is no substitute for face-to-face diplomacy, and in a relationship as complex and volatile as that between the United States and China, there is a lot to talk about,” Blinken told reporters at the start of the meeting.
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“We very much look forward to a productive and constructive conversation,” he said.
Blinken is expected to repeat warnings to China not to support Russia’s war in Ukraine, and the two sides will address contentious issues that include Taiwan, China’s expansive claims to the South China Sea, expanding its influence in the Pacific, human rights and trade tariffs .
Still, both sides share an interest in keeping relations stable, and Blinken and U.S. officials say President Joe Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping are expected to speak again in the coming weeks, something likely to be discussed at Saturday’s meeting.
“China and the United States are two big countries, so it is necessary for the two countries to maintain normal exchanges,” Wang told reporters.
“At the same time, we need to talk together to ensure that these relations continue to move forward on the right path,” Wang said.
Daniel Russell, the top U.S. diplomat for East Asia under former President Barack Obama who maintains close contact with Biden administration officials, said he believed a key goal of the meeting would be to explore the possibility of a one-on-one meeting between Biden and Xi. for the first time as leaders, possibly on the sidelines of the G20 summit in Bali in November.
The United States calls China its main strategic rival and is concerned that it may one day try to take over the self-ruled, democratic island of Taiwan, just as Russia attacked Ukraine.
The top US diplomat for East Asia, Daniel Krittenbrink, said on Tuesday he expected a “frank” exchange with Wang and said it would be another opportunity “to convey our expectations of what we would expect China to do and not do in the context of Ukraine”.
Shortly before Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on February 24, Beijing and Moscow announced an “unrestricted” partnership. But U.S. officials said they had not seen China avoid tough U.S.-imposed sanctions against Russia or provide it with military equipment.
However, China refused to condemn Russia’s actions and criticized the wide-ranging sanctions.
US officials have warned of consequences, including sanctions, if China begins offering material support to Russia’s military effort, which it calls a “special military operation” to degrade Ukraine’s military, although Kyiv counters that it is an imperial-style land grab .
Despite their strategic rivalry, the world’s two largest economies remain major trading partners, and Biden is considering removing tariffs on a range of Chinese goods to curb rising US inflation ahead of midterm elections in November, with a focus on control of Congress. Read more
(This story has been revised to edit the headline to show first in-person conversations)
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Additional reporting by Ryan Woo in Beijing; Writing by Ed Davis; Editing by Christian Schmollinger, Robert Birsel
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